ROWING TITLES

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32393, 4 September 1970, Page 11

ROWING TITLES

N.Z. Eight Win Heat (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) ST CATHARINES. Gold, silver and bronze medal-winning crews from the 1968 Olympic Games failed to win a heat in the eights event of the third world rowing championships yesterday. Crews from East Germany, New Zealand and Hungary showed them the way and qualified for Saturday’s semifinals.

The gold medallist, West Germany, finished third in the heat won by East Germany, with the bronze medallist Russia second in the same heat The silver medallist Australia, was second to New Zealand.

The three Olympic medallists and the other also-rans, all go into the repechayes. European crews dominated the opening day of the fourday regatta. West Germany, East Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland went through to the semi-finals in the coxed fours, and Russia, the Netherlands and East Germany qualified in the coxless pairs.

New Zealand beat Australia by two lengths in its heat of the eights. New Zealand recorded smin 54.685ec. The fastest time was by East Germany, smin 52.29 sec while the other heat winner, Hungary, did smin 56.375ec. In the fours, however, New Zealand was second to West Germany and now goes into the reperchayes. The New Zealand four had a bad start and at 500 metres were a canvas behind the big West German crew, who average 16stone.

Norway challenged and passed New Zealand at the 1500metre mark, but with 250 metres to go the New Zealand stroke, J. Johnston, raised the rating to 39 and regained second position. However, he could not catch West Germany.

The times of the fours heat winners were 6:29.22 (Netherlands); 6:22.83 (West Germany); 6:27.24 (East Germany) and 6.29.04 (Switzerland). The New Zealand pair, R. Murphy and D. Molesworth, finished sixth in their heat, with a time of 7:27. The outstanding Russian crew won in 6:54.2.